AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



499 



From this it was concluded to put the 

 sections in wide frames in the lower 

 hive, and alternate with the brood-combs, 

 as they would then work upon the whole 

 face of the sections, and on both sides. 



The trouble here was that the queen 

 filled the sections (as soon as filled with 

 comb) with eggs, which necessitated 

 taking them out, and keeping them out 

 long enough to chill the eggs and then 

 put them into supers. 



This was entirely too slow work, so it 

 was decided to confine the queen in an 

 apartment 8 or 10 days before the 

 harvest, and run the sections right 

 through the harvest in wide frames in 

 the lower story. In fact, the brood and 

 queen are surrounded by sections on 

 two sides beside the top of the hive. 



I confine the queen in the apartment 

 by the use of two peculiarly constructed 

 division boards, and three or four strips 

 of zinc to fit into the spaces between the 

 frames, and which may be instantly 

 adjusted or removed from any kind of 

 frames in use. The division-board is 

 applied to the frames — not to the hives, 

 as would generally be supposed. 



At first, five or six brood-frames were 

 allowed to remain in the queen's apart- 

 ment, but have now reduced the number 

 to four, and may eventually reduce the 

 number to three, as the space of time 

 necessary for the queen to be restrained 

 is much less than was at first supposed. 



By this method I manage to contract 

 the queen's laying space while the bees 

 are allowed all the space for the storage 

 of honey that the capacity of the hive 

 will afford. 



Clinton, Wis. 



Carniolan Bees— Honey CroD. 



D. C. M'LEOD. 



I have had some experience with the 

 Carniolan bees, having received queens 

 from four queen breeders — two from Mr. 

 Pratt, and one from each of the others — 

 all claiming that their stock was pure, 

 but I had better looking Carniolans in 

 my apiary, which were a cross from a 

 queen that I bought several years ago, 

 when A. I. Root published so much 

 about them in Gleanings, but the queen 

 was not pure. 



Last year I sent to a queen breeder 

 for a queen. My order was one of the 

 first of the season, but was overlooked, 

 and I waited until Fall, and then wrote 

 to him, asking if he intended to send the 

 queen. I received an immediate answer. 



stating that my order had been over- 

 looked, but that he would send two 

 queens the next week — one to fill the 

 order, and the other for the annoyance 

 I had been subjected to — and the week 

 following that he would send a third 

 one, to shew his good' will. 



The queens all came safely, and were 

 successfully introduced, but so late that 

 no brood was reared last year, and I 

 could not tell anything about them until 

 Spring. However, they all proved to be 

 purely bred, beautiful silver and gray 

 Carniolans ; not a mixed bee in either of 

 the three colonies. They are beauties. 



The honey crop was a. failure last 

 year, and this year it is worse than last, 

 there being no honey, except from fruit 

 bloom. White clover gave us no honey, 

 and Fall flowers are yielding no nectar. 

 Bees in this locality will have to be fed. 



Pana, Ills., Oct. 2, 1891. 



Defending ttie Blact Bees. 



JOHN HANDEL. 



I am pleased to notice that Mr. E.lling- 

 wood has put in a plea of defense for our 

 native or black bee. 



I looked over the advertising columns 

 expecting to find improved native queens 

 for sale, but found none. 



Mr. Ellingwood is like hundreds of 

 others, honey-producers, of course, and 

 readers of the Bee Journal, who are 

 really sick and disgusted with the many 

 slanders flung at their brown pets. 



I do not object to queen-breeders 

 booming the strain of bees they have to 

 sell, but the testimony, and consequently 

 the slurs of those who, having a colony of 

 Italians in a new frame hive, protecting 

 them and supplying them with all 

 necessaries, and at the end of the season 

 comparing them with their blacks in 

 their neglected box-hive, is found in 

 print quite too often. 



The keepers of bl&ck bees, like the 

 bees they keep, are not much inclined 

 to defend themselves, and while some of 

 the keepers of Italians are robbing the 

 blacks of their good name, the Italians 

 are robbing them of their stores. 



The fact that the blacks do not defend 

 their homes sufficiently, is only true 

 when that inquisitive Italian is around 

 prying into every crack, and taking 

 them by surprise (I mean their honey), 

 before sunrise, for if those who boom 

 the Italians' early rising qualities will 

 rise early themselves, and rub the dust 

 out of their eyes, so they can see where 



